


Fortune

by conceptstage



Series: Critical Fiction [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 12:38:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15663381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conceptstage/pseuds/conceptstage
Summary: Copper for your fortune?





	Fortune

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to my tumblr. Come find me there, I'm concept-stage.

“A copper for your fortune?” asked an elderly voice that drew Molly’s attention. He followed the voice with his eyes, peeking around the crowd of people moving passed and finding an elderly gnome woman with long white hair that reached her little feet and milky, unseeing eyes. She gave him a smile so rusted it squeaked. “Yes, child, you there. A copper for your fortune?”

Beau rolled her eyes and tugged on Molly’s arm. “Come on, Caleb and Nott are waiting for us at the gyro stand.”

The festival was starting to wind down for the day. The merchants were rolling their carts away and the parents were shuffling their children indoors, away from the chill in the air. The food usually stayed open later, he knew, to catch the people having dinner. “We have time. I want my fortune read.” He started over to the woman and tossed her a copper which she caught out of the air effortlessly. 

“What? Come on, Molly, you told me fortunes are bullshit. You and your damn cards, you just tell people what they want to hear.”

“Exactly. And it’s always so much fun watching other people do it. I don’t think she’s about to tell me how I’m going to die or where I’ll meet my true love, it’s just for fun.”

The woman chuckled and gently laid her hands over his, loosely holding his wrists. “I cannot tell you how you meet your true love, dearie. You paid for the future, not the past.”

He smirked. “Oh, so I’ve met them already then? When I was child?”

“You were never a child, my dear.”

His smile started to fall and he saw Beau tense up beside him. “What do you mean?”

“You were born from the womb of the ground, in an body left vacant. He never met his true love. But you have met yours. But, you don’t care about that, remember? You’re here for your future.”

“Molly,” Beau said, gripping his clothes. “Let’s go. This old bitch is obviously bullshitting us.”

“No, no,” he said, gently patting her hand until she released his jacket. “I want to hear what she has to say. Alright, then. Tell me my future.”

She turned his hands over, purple palms up and started running her thumbs over the creases in his skin. “You have a long life ahead of you, young man. Not constant, there are minor interruptions, but long in total.”

Beau sneered and crossed her arms. “That doesn’t make any fuckin’ sense.”

The old woman glanced at her briefly. “There are people who care about you. They will bring you back two times.”

“But not the third?” he asked with a smirk.

“Everyone must die sometime. But most of them will be with you when you finally pass for the last time, holding your hands and kissing your face. Not all. Unfortunately you lose one before your time comes, but she is waiting for you on the other side when you arrive.”

Beau grabbed his jacket again and squeezed. “Let’s go, Molly. I don’t like her.”

“It’s not you, dearie,” the woman says, looking over at Beau again and staring at her for a long moment before turning her attention back to Mollymauk. He tried to pull his hands away but she closed her fingers around them. “Perhaps I should not have started with death. Most people find it too intense. Would you like to know more about your future love then? It’s a beautiful love, hard fought and hard won but easy to hold once it’s in your grasp. It will not be soon, but it will be lasting.”

Molly blinked and considered a question for a moment. “Is it… who I think it is?”

“It is the person you want it to be, but you will both be so different by that time, it would not do to try and move too quickly. You both have edges to dull and walls to erode before the pieces fall into place. Remember, the future is malleable and knowing it can affect the outcome. So don’t fuck it up, dearie.”

A laugh forced its way out of Beau’s throat even though she was trying to be stoic. He was finding this less and less funny. There was no way some bull shitter like him could be this accurate, she had to be the real deal. He cleared his throat and leaned forward, glancing at Beau briefly out of the corner of his eye before whispering his question.

“What about family?” He asked. “Do I have anyone…”

She gave him a sad smile and let go of one of his wrists to pat his cheek. “I’m sorry, dearie. The man you were before didn’t have a family. But  _ you _ will. Someday soon, you’ll be surrounded by so much love you won’t know what to do with yourself. A brother, four sisters-” Molly tried to ignore the way she looked at Beau for the sister part. “-a lover, a small handful of nieces and nephews. A kid of your own too, not of blood but yours all the same.”

He did take his hands back at that, standing and staring down at her. “Let’s go, Beau,” he said, turning sharply and leading her away. “She’s obviously a huckster. A kid? Me?” he huffed dismissively.

She hummed thoughtfully and followed him with her fingers linked behind her head. “I don’t know, she got most of the rest pretty close. She even got your gross crush on Caleb right.”

“I don’t have a-” He paused when she just raised an unkempt eyebrow at him and then he sneered in response. “Go fuck yourself.” But there wasn’t really any heat behind it. There never was these days. “Nothing she said was even remotely accurate.”

Beau shrugged. “Alright, man, if you say so. I just want a gyro. Or four.”

He sighed and rerouted them since before now he’d just been marching purposeless in a straight line of fury. “Yeah, let’s go find the others.” He looked back at where the fortune teller had been but the sidewalk was empty.

“For what it’s worth,” she said with a teasing lilt and he looked over to her. “I always wanted a brother.”

“Oh, fuck off,” he said, shoving her gently but he was smiling and she laughed obnoxiously loud as she moved to keep from running into someone. When she’d righted herself he reached over and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her back in and kissing her temple. He ignored her cry of ‘Ew, you fucker’ and grinned. “Come on then. Let’s not keep our family waiting.”


End file.
